Musician Ed Sheeran told jurors he finds the claim that he stole from a classic Marvin Gaye song “really insulting” during court testimony that included the British recording artist singing, playing guitar and frequently sparring with a lawyer for the opposing side.
(Bloomberg) — Musician Ed Sheeran told jurors he finds the claim that he stole from a classic Marvin Gaye song “really insulting” during court testimony that included the British recording artist singing, playing guitar and frequently sparring with a lawyer for the opposing side.
Heirs of Ed Townsend, who cowrote Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” claim Sheeran, 32, lifted elements from the 1973 hit for “Thinking Out Loud” in 2014 and that the British singer and songwriter is liable for copyright infringement. In testimony Monday, Sheeran played riffs from his own songs and those of other songwriters as a trial over the copyright claims entered the second week.
Sheeran made clear he thinks the claims are baseless. The case is being closely watched by the music industry, as a verdict for Townsend could make musicians and their music labels more vulnerable to suit.
“This sort of stuff is really common in songwriting now,” Sheeran said of the claims. “If you write songs and you’re successful, people come after you.”
Sheeran’s team is trying to prove that any overlap between “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” is just the result of musical “building blocks,” such as chord progressions, rhythm and harmonies, that are available to all musicians and used in countless songs.
The Townsend heirs, who own partial rights to “Let’s Get It On,” argue the similarities are striking and that Sheeran’s hit was constructed on the musical bones of that enduring American song. They say they’re seeking to protect Townsend’s musical legacy and ensure he gets the credit he deserves.
Ed Townsend died in 2003. Marvin Gaye died in 1984.
Sheeran told the jury of four women and three men that he and his frequent collaborator, Amy Wadge, wrote the song in February 2014. Wadge, who is not named as a defendant in the case, was called to the stand after Sheeran.
Sheeran was frequently combative under cross-examination by Patrick R. Frank, a lawyer for the Townsend heirs. He seemed particularly irritated by the testimony that had been given by Alexander Stewart, a musicologist who testified as an expert witness for the Townsend heirs. Stewart testified that the chords in the opening 24 seconds of “Thinking Out Loud” line up with those in “Let’s Get It On.” Sheeran said the expert has the chords wrong.
“How would Dr. Stewart know?” he asked, in apparent frustration. “Me personally, I knew what I was playing on guitar because it was me playing it on guitar. Does that make sense?”
At times, Sheeran’s side seemed to be making a case that he’d cribbed from Van Morrison, a singer and songwriter from Northern Ireland whom Sheeran called “one of the greatest artists of all time,” rather than from Ed Townsend, someone he said he hadn’t heard of before being sued by the songwriter’s family in 2017.
Sheeran played bits from the Morrison songs “Tupelo Honey” and “Crazy Love,” showing how similar they are to pieces of “Thinking Out Loud.” He testified that people at his record label even referred to “Thinking Out Loud” as “The Van Morrison Song.”
Concert Mashup
Asked on cross-examination if he had given Van Morrison a writing credit on the song, he said “I didn’t credit Van Morrison for ‘Thinking Out Loud’ because I wrote ‘Thinking Out Loud,’ not Van Morrison.”
Sheeran testified that a concert mashup viewed by the jury, in which he transitioned from “Thinking Out Loud” to “Let’s Get It On” and back again, shows that many songs can be played together because they share common chord progressions. A lawyer for the Townsend heirs argued in his opening statement that the mashup is the “smoking gun” that proves Sheeran copied from “Let’s Get It On.” Sheeran testified that he and other artists frequently play such mashups in concert.
“Every now and then it’s nice to throw in a few curveballs to spice it up a bit,” he said.
During Sheeran’s time on the stand, he was asked how he would feel if the jury decides he copied from “Let’s Get It On.”
“If that happens, I’m done,” he said.
The case is Griffin v. Sheeran, 17-cv-05221, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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